Daily Archives: May 7, 2015

I mean, that day of wild dancing with the Muse makes for a great report, but the afterhours flumping really hurts any sense of achievement. And of course, days and weeks of (hopefully) steady progress, no change…

I try to not get too frustrated by this bi-polar aspect of my writing (or how the ROW80 has highlighted it for me). I’m not always successful. The highs can be exhilarating and addictive. The lows can be depleting and heart-breaking. And the steady-as-she-goes….

That can feel pretty boring at times—both to read about and to write about.

I think that’s why so many writing “challenges” out there exist like NaNoWriMo, Story-A-Day, NaPoWriMo, JuNoWriMo, etc. The Writer’s High, the ecstasy of writing lots of words fast is a damned powerful thing. It doesn’t often last. For me, a NaNo Writer’s High usually wears off about halfway through the week, then I need to recover for another weekend burst of speed and inspiration. Talk about exhausting!

So… Why am I going to try to convince you to join yet another Novel Writing Month challenge? Would you believe me if I told you it was for the sprints?

It is, actually. At least, for me, it is the sprints.

See, I used to be one of those flump on the bed with notebook and pen people… then I started writing on a computer. Great for editing and a bit of a time-saver on occasion… but there’s something about the distraction a computer offers (even a computer without internet access) to the distraction of sprawling amid comforters and pillows.

But I’ve found that getting involved with the writing community for sprints helps me move past certain distractions. So, these days when I join a WriMo, I often do so knowing full well that I might not make those precious 50K words, and I don’t care. I do it for the social aspect, for the accountability that sharing wordcounts offers… I do it for the sprints.

The Things We Do

So, why not join me this coming June for yet another word frenzy. Rebel like I am (I’ve already stated my goal for this year’s JuNoWriMo will be 50K word added and deleted… I’m in full re-write mode on Courting The Swan Song, and I have no intention of braindumping this year). In the end every writing challenge is yours to use as YOU need it.

(This need for accountability and social contact with other writers is also why I’ve stayed in the ROW80… the Writing Challenge that knows you have a Life, for so long.)

And speaking of accountability… here is my ROW80 check-in:

write every day… oops! I kind of blew yesterday unless one counts eliminating about 50 words from a section of CtSS (I’m counting it, since editing and reworking a story is part of the writing process)

spend time with my characters daily… yep. I’m in the preplanning stage for JuNoWriMo, so I’m spending a lot of time with them. Though Tuesday, I somehow found myself spending more time trying to figure out Release than CtSS. Which isn’t that bad, I guess… except the Swan Song series comes before the Parvenu series in my world’s timeline.

still not there with my push-ups… I can do eight mediocre ones now (up from my zero in January). And somehow, despite months of doing them regularly, I still find those the last 5-10 jumping jacks at the beginning of class kill my right leg. I will keep doing them though.

daily time with my camera…. yep. Though I need to get some editing done soon. And since my desktop PC is starting to act flukey, I need to transfer all my images to backup storage as well.